Newport News re-hires acquitted police officer

Newport News

A Newport News police officer who was acquitted in two recent jury trials was fully reinstated by the police department on Friday.

Christopher E. Miner, 38, who was put on paid administrative leave in January 2009 and fired on Dec. 14, will go back to work as a senior police officer on March 16, his attorney, Robert W. Lawrence said Friday.

His reinstatement spares a protracted battle to win back his job through a grievance process.

"He's been reinstated, with all the benefits," Lawrence said. "We're both elated. ... I give the city credit in this case for doing the right thing."

Miner — the Police Department's Officer of the Year in 2006 — will also get three months of back pay from December to March.

Miner was arrested in January 2009, charged with abducting a woman with the intent to defile her. Shortly thereafter, another woman came forward to say he had raped her and forced her to commit sodomy. Both women had been willing previous sexual partners of Miner's, with both incidents said to have occurred in his home after dates.

Miner was acquitted in both cases — one trial ending Jan. 26 and another ending Feb. 23. After the verdicts, Lawrence said Miner would fight to win his job back, with a grievance process already having begun.

"He should have never been charged, and that's been borne out by two jury trials," Lawrence said.

On Friday afternoon, another police officer delivered to Miner's home letters from Police Chief James Fox and Assistant City Manager Cynthia D. Rohlf, who oversees the police department. Lawrence said he believes Fox and Rohlf jointly made the decision to reinstate the officer.

"Considering the factors of your acquittal, I find no basis to uphold the two ... administrative charges against you," Rohlf wrote to the officer.

Rohlf told Miner that a separate offense of excessive alcohol consumption would remain in the officer's disciplinary record. "I now consider this grievance resolved," she wrote.

"He understands that alcohol is detrimental," Lawrence said. "He's not going to use it anymore."